Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⬜⬜
Title: Instructions for Dancing
Author: Nicola Yoon
Genre: YA Romance / YA Fiction
Author Info: She / Her
Setting: La Brea, California
Month Read: June 2021
Book Type: Hardcover
Publication: 2021
Pages: 304
*Book of the Month June 2021 Pick
TRIGGER WARNING-
Divorce / Cheating / Grief / Anxiety / Loss
"Happiness is tricky. Sometimes you have to fight for it. Sometimes, though—the best times—it sneaks up behind you, wraps an arm around your waist and pulls you close."
No Spoiler Summary:
Instructions for Dancing is a YA novel about Evie, a girl who loved romance novels, but cannot find the joy in them after finding out about her dad's infidelity and now their divorce. Evie is trying to navigate her new normal, when suddenly everytime she sees a couple kiss she has visions about the subjects' romance from beginning to end.
While Evie tries to figure out how to make her visions stop, she is drawn to the La Brea Dance academy and starts taking lessons. She's convinced to dance for a local competition, and her partner is everything she wished he wasn't. Handsome, Charismatic, Passionate X is everything Evie is trying to stay away from, and she refuses to fall in love with him.
Evie and X form a friendship, but Evie can't shake the visions, and how not one of them has had a Happily Ever After. Can she fall for X knowing that love doesn't last? Is the journey better than the final destination? Can X thaw Evie's frozen heart?
Review:
I am really glad I got this in my June Book of the Month box, as I haven't seen many YA offerings since I started my boxes earlier this year. However, while reading this (and Hello Girls and The Unlikelies) I'm wondering if I'm aging out of the Teen Romance genre as a whole. I couldn't get past some of the dialogue, and the fact that this felt written for younger than the late teens/early 20's I thought it was for... and some of my biggest writing pet peeves happened in this quite a bit.
I think the plot had a ton of really great moments, I just wish they had been executed a little better. The visions, the dance school- all really cool moments that I felt could have been way more, but felt sort of dumbed down. (It might just be me, please let me know your thoughts if you've read this!)
I did LOVE Evie, and I also loved X a whole lot. They had really wonderful chemistry, and I loved how they interacted with eachother. There were a lot of fun characters, and I do think this book would be the perfect setup for a miniseries or a movie. I'm surprised this doesn't already have a deal with a streaming platform considering all of the books that have been picked up this year.
Overall, not my favorite book of the year, but definitely one of the better YA books I've read. I'm glad I got it in my box, and I'm still into whatever Nicola Yoon writes next. If you haven't read The Sun Is Also A Star, please do as soon as possible- it's a gorgeous book.
Recommendation:
Unexpected Romances:
Emergency Contact by Mary H.K Choi
My Life with the Walter Boys by Ali Novak
The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
"Here's what I think. If you get very, very lucky in this life, then you get to love another person so hard and so completely that when you lose them, it rips you apart. I think the pain is the proof of a life well lived and loved."
Comments